Encyclopedia of Islam

Further reading: Michael Lecker, Muslims, Jews, and 

Pagans: Studies on Early Islamic Medina (Leiden: E.J. 

Brill, 1995); W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet 

and Statesman (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 

1964).

emigration

  See h

ijra

.

Enoch

  See i

dris

.

eschatology

 

(Greek 

eschatos, “last”)

In the comparative study of religions, eschatology

is a term used for beliefs and doctrines concerning 

last things—

death

, the end of the world, and the 

aFterliFe

. Muslims all share certain expectations 

for the end times, but there are significant differ-

ences between Sunni and Shiite expectations, as 

well as cases of difference between scholarly and 

popular interpretations within the same sect. All 

Muslims believe that time is linear, having begun